DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9840#0329
XVII.] EXCAVATIONS OF SIR PULTENEY MALCOLM. 275
among them. Manias found several persons of his ac-
quaintance here, as was the case in most places where
I stopped throughout the island. In less than half an
hour after leaving Pevkos we arrived at Haghio Vasili,
which we found almost deserted, nearlv all its inha-
bitants being out gathering their olives.
We left Haghio Vasili at twelve, and, after descend-
ing towards the sea for somewhat more than two miles,
came in sight of the coast, from the summit of a steep
range of rocks running nearly due east and west. They
are distant only about a mile from the sea. From this
place I was nearly half an hour in descending by a zig-
zag path along the face of the hills, down into the little
plain of Arvi. It produces corn, and is about six hun-
dred paces long, and two hundred paces wide. On my
left I notice a river which flows through the plain to
the sea: it is the same that we have already crossed
twice this morning, and passes through a narrow cleft
in the rocks which bound the plain on its northern side.
The appearance of the cleft is picturesque : wild carobs
and cypresses have fixed themselves wherever a handful
of earth has made it possible for them to take root: and
so little earth is there in these crevices that the trees
seem to grow out of the solid rock.
The Melidte employed by Sir Pulteney Malcolm
to make excavations in Crete, heard, when at Haghio
Vasdi, a few months since, of the discovery, many years
ago, near the shore at Arvi, of a monument of ancient
art. It was broken in pieces by the peasants, when
they found it, probably to see whether gold was con-
tained within its solid marble: and several fragments
of it were found by the Melidte, in the houses of pea-
sants in this neighbourhood. A few hours excavation,
at the spot pointed out to him near the shore, brought
to light many additional pieces. When I saw the man
a fortnight ago, at Megalo-Kastron, he assured me that
he had obtained every single fragment of the monument.
The account which he gave of the parts which he had
among them. Manias found several persons of his ac-
quaintance here, as was the case in most places where
I stopped throughout the island. In less than half an
hour after leaving Pevkos we arrived at Haghio Vasili,
which we found almost deserted, nearlv all its inha-
bitants being out gathering their olives.
We left Haghio Vasili at twelve, and, after descend-
ing towards the sea for somewhat more than two miles,
came in sight of the coast, from the summit of a steep
range of rocks running nearly due east and west. They
are distant only about a mile from the sea. From this
place I was nearly half an hour in descending by a zig-
zag path along the face of the hills, down into the little
plain of Arvi. It produces corn, and is about six hun-
dred paces long, and two hundred paces wide. On my
left I notice a river which flows through the plain to
the sea: it is the same that we have already crossed
twice this morning, and passes through a narrow cleft
in the rocks which bound the plain on its northern side.
The appearance of the cleft is picturesque : wild carobs
and cypresses have fixed themselves wherever a handful
of earth has made it possible for them to take root: and
so little earth is there in these crevices that the trees
seem to grow out of the solid rock.
The Melidte employed by Sir Pulteney Malcolm
to make excavations in Crete, heard, when at Haghio
Vasdi, a few months since, of the discovery, many years
ago, near the shore at Arvi, of a monument of ancient
art. It was broken in pieces by the peasants, when
they found it, probably to see whether gold was con-
tained within its solid marble: and several fragments
of it were found by the Melidte, in the houses of pea-
sants in this neighbourhood. A few hours excavation,
at the spot pointed out to him near the shore, brought
to light many additional pieces. When I saw the man
a fortnight ago, at Megalo-Kastron, he assured me that
he had obtained every single fragment of the monument.
The account which he gave of the parts which he had